An upper limb training apparatus has been conventionally known that provides rehabilitation to a patient whose motor function of the upper limb (particularly, arm) is damaged due to disabilities such as a cerebrovascular accident and a spinal damage (refer to Patent Document 1). The conventional upper limb training apparatus includes a frame, an operation rod, and an extension and contraction driving section. The frame includes a fixed frame that can be placed on the floor surface, and a movable frame that can tilt relative to the fixed frame. The movable frame is supported by the fixed frame such that the movable frame can tilt in all directions from the tilting center. The operation rod is connected to the movable frame such that the operation rod can tilt. The operation rod can extend and contract vertically. The movable frame can tilt with an electric driving. The operation rod is extended and contracted by the extension and contraction driving section disposed in the middle portion. The operation rod has an upper end portion to which an attachment corresponding to the types of the training is removably attached.
In the conventional upper limb training apparatus, a patient grabs the attachment attached to a top portion of the operation rod by the mobility-impaired arm or fixes the upper limb to the attachment, and moves or tries to move the operation rod, or the arm is moved by the operation rod for rehabilitation.
The doctor and the occupational therapist comprehensively determine the purpose of the training to be provided, height of the patient, height of the shoulders of the patient, movable range of the mobility-impaired upper limb and/or types of the attachments, and appropriately set the length and movable length of the operation rod. Although the rod length of the operation rod is set according to the patients, some of the patients perform a function recovery training by operating the operation rod in the extension and contraction direction.
Patent Citation 1: Laid-Open Japanese Patent Publication 2007-50249
Patent Citation 2: US Patent Publication 2006/0293617